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Hotel anchors Osprey plan

The property owner who wants to redevelop Osprey’s waterfront district presented preliminary plans to the Osprey Revitalization Committee (ORC) Sept. 2 and received mostly positive reviews.

“Very impressive,” said ORC Chairman Rick Noyes following the presentation by property owner Anil Patel.
Patel wants to create a mixed-use village in the 14-acre district. The plan calls for a 190-room, waterfront hotel as the development’s centerpiece.

ORC board members questioned whether the hotel needed to have that many rooms, and Patel said the hotel would not be economically viable if it were any smaller. He also said that number of rooms was necessary to attract a well-known hotel chain.

“It’s a deal breaker if we can’t have the hotel,” said Patel representative Chris Brown.

The proposed height of the hotel seemed to be the only potential stumbling block for Patel. It would be up to six stories and 70 feet tall, to which some residents were opposed.

But land planner Alan Garrett, another Patel representative, said the Osprey Revitalization Plan would permit that height.

The development plan also calls for a residential/retail building surrounding a parking garage, townhomes, apartments, a boathouse for the Sarasota Scullers rowing team and a new waterfront restaurant.

Patel is also proposing a wider, landscaped median on Tamiami Trail in front of the development, but acknowledges that getting approval from the Florida Department of Transportation would be difficult.

The development plan is scheduled to go before the Planning Commission Nov. 5 and the County Commission Nov. 18.